Our spare time is precious. How we unwind says a lot about what we value. With a wide array of pastimes available, respondents in a recent Nielsen global survey were asked to select their top three spare-time activities. While certain activities skew younger than older and vice versa, if you think technology-driven younger people don’t read anymore, think again.

In this third of a five-part series about the differences between how generations live, eat, work and save, we focus on how consumers play.

Generation Z Picks Reading As A Top Spare-Time Activity

While TV has universal appeal as a favorite spare-time activity among all generations, it turns out that more respondents in Generation Z (ages 15-20) selected reading (27%) as a favorite activity than tuning into their favorite TV programs (23%). In fact, more Gen Z respondents picked reading than reviewing social media (17%) or playing video and online games (17% and 16%, respectively).

Other activities, however, have particular younger or older age skews. When ranked by percentage that picked the activity, listening to music landed as a top three pick for Generation Z (37%) and Millennials (27%), while it fell further down the list for older respondents. Conversely, our desire to explore steadily increases as we age, as traveling was selected by 12% of Generation Z, 18% of Millennials, 22% of Generation X, 22% of Baby Boomers and 25% of Silent Generation respondents. Gardening (22%) was a unique favorite among Silent Generation respondents, putting it in their top-five list of spare-time activities.

Top 5 Activities By Generation

Generation Z
(15-20)

Millennials
(21-34)

Generation X
(35-49)

Boomers
(50-64)

Silent Generation
(65+)

Listen to Music: 37%

Watch TV: 31%

Watch TV: 38%

Watch TV: 42%

Read: 42%

Read: 27%

Connect with Friends/Family: 28%

Connect with Friends/Family: 30%

Read: 29%

Watch TV: 40%

Watch TV: 23%

Listen to Music: 27%

Read: 24%

Connect with Friends/Family: 28%

Connect with Friends/Family: 29%

Connect with Friends/Family: 19%

Read: 20%

Travel: 22%

Travel: 22%

Travel: 25%

Exercise: 18%

Travel: 18%

Listen to Music: 21%

Listen to Music: 19%

Garden: 22%

Source: Nielsen Generational Lifestyle Survey, Q1 2015

Other findings from the Nielsen Global Generational Lifestyles Report include:

The majority of older respondents turn to TV to get the news, but the medium still holds sway for nearly half of Millennial (48%) and Generation Z (45%) respondents.

Older respondents show higher levels of being distracted by technology at mealtime than younger generations.

Millennials are roughly two times more likely than Generation X to leave their current job after two years.

More than half of Generation Z and Millennial respondents (52% and 54%, respectively) want to live in a big city or urban neighborhood.

Approximately half of younger respondents say they save money each month, but they aren’t confident in their financial futures.

About the Nielsen Global Survey

The Nielsen Global Survey of Generational Attitudes was conducted Feb. 23-March 13, 2015, and polled more than 30,000 online consumers in 60 countries throughout Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East/Africa and North America. The sample includes Internet users who agreed to participate in this survey and has quotas based on age and sex for each country. It is weighted to be representative of Internet consumers by country. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. However, a probability sample of equivalent size would have a margin of error of ±0.6% at the global level. This Nielsen survey is based only on the behavior of respondents with online access. Internet penetration rates vary by country. Nielsen uses a minimum reporting standard of 60% Internet penetration or an online population of 10 million for survey inclusion.